‘Sausage Party’ is a deep theological BBQ supper – REVIEW

Seth Rogen’s sexual adult cartoon is very agenda driven while still being funny and thought-provoking

Sausage Party is about grocery products having a belief systems where humans are gods who choose the products and bring them in the kitchen where they will be brutally murdered. The film stars Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig and Michael Cera.

and What is surprising about a cartoon with swearing hot dogs is how much actual metaphors and allegories is in this film. Most surprising of all, these commentary are Sausage Party’s strongest point. The supermarket represents the world with some commentary on how religion affects every part of the world. This is where the movie shines because it does the most of its “adult cartoon” aspect.

It would’ve been easy for the animators to slack off because it is in fact an adult cartoon. However, the animation is crisp and colourful and they use the animation to convey different aspect of the story. Using the greyscale when you see the people’s perception and when the cartoon uses horror elements was a brilliant way of conveying different mood changes.

Although the movie does use tiring racial, homophobic and mysogynistic tropes, some of the realizations are quite clever and brilliant. Every part of the supermarket represents a specific part of the world and when they interact, you can really see the commentary shining through. However, some of the jokes between characters have been excessively used in other movies.

Another element that got annoying quickly was the excessive use of swearing. The raunchy cartoon takes for granted that its audience has never seen a adult cartoon while in fact probably everyone has seen one or two. They continuously want to shock you by repeatedly having Frank, the hot dog, swear every two words.

Speaking of things done for shock value, the biggest flaw for Sausage Party has to be its third act. The creators completely forget the allegories they were building. Some conclusions can be drawn but they never hit it home. They don’t take the time to finish their allegories and metaphors they did such a good job to build. Instead, they settle for plain shock and raunch.

Sausage Party’s satirical nature is fun but it’s the all around allegory that makes this a successful cartoon for grown-ups. Even though, it does fall flat sometimes, the goods out weighs the flaws. If this is a starting point for more cartoon in America, we are definitely starting with the right foot.